![\"Faux](\"\/Pix\/Humor\/faux-pas.jpg\")
Today during the broadcast of Shepard Smith’s Studio B, Fox News cut to a live police car chase in Arizona. This is typical fare for Fox News who frequently break into programming for this sort of crime drama. Never mind that there is nothing particularly newsworthy about it. Ordinarily it involves some low-level violation that would only be of interest to the residents of the locality where it occurred.<\/p>\n
However, today the situation had much more tragic consequences. The suspect drove into field, abandoned the car, and ran down a dirt road to a clearing where he pulled out a gun shot himself in the head. Fox News aired the entire tragedy live.<\/p>\n
After the shooting, Shepard Smith was heard ordering his crew to cut away, but it was too late. He seemed to be genuinely disturbed, and his subsequent apology was no doubt sincere. The network also issued an official apology.<\/p>\n
However, there is a bigger issue here that Fox isn’t addressing. Why do they cover these car chases at all? There is no news value, particularly to a national audience, for a local crime. Suspects in these affairs are often seen exploiting their new-found celebrity. And the interest to the viewer is confined to its morbid nature.<\/p>\n
What does Fox News expect to happen when they broadcast these chases? They know that the conclusions can be dramatic and disturbing. They follow fleeing suspects as they run through busy intersections and narrowly miss pedestrians. They interrupt more important news coverage as they devote hours to watching a car snake through the city.<\/p>\n
Let’s face it, the only reason these chases are covered is for ratings. And the more dramatic the chase, the higher the ratings. Anyone who doesn’t believe that Fox harbors some desire that the car smash into a truck or a crowded bus stop, or flies off a bridge, is simply naive. Their resources are expensive. Helicopters, cameras, studios, producers, anchors, and crews, as well as the airtime and pre-empted commercials, are not given lightly to stories without some justification. They don’t spend hours tracking a vehicle from the air with the hope that the driver just decides to pull over and lay down on the ground. A shootout with police makes much better television.<\/p>\n
So despite Smith’s regrets, it is hard to forgive Fox for subjecting their viewers to this. It was the inevitable outcome of their sensationalistic editorial philosophy. They simply cannot absolve themselves of any responsibility and then go back to broadcasting the next police pursuit as if nothing happened.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Today during the broadcast of Shepard Smith’s Studio B, Fox News cut to a live police car chase in Arizona. This is typical fare for Fox News who frequently break into programming for this sort of crime drama. Never mind that there is nothing particularly newsworthy about it. Ordinarily it involves some low-level violation that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[33],"class_list":["post-8113","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","tag-fox-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4Ijg-26R","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":16052,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=16052","url_meta":{"origin":8113,"position":0},"title":"Did Fox News Bench Shepard Smith For Telling The Truth About Bowe Bergdahl?","author":"Mark NC","date":"6\/6\/2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Last Tuesday Fox News anchor Shepard Smith delivered a remarkable commentary in support of the traditional American values of \"innocence until proven guilty\" and respect for our nation's defenders in the military. It was a striking departure from the talking points belched out by pretty much everyone else on Fox\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"Fox News Shepard Smith","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/fox-news-shep-bergdahl.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/fox-news-shep-bergdahl.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/fox-news-shep-bergdahl.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":40874,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=40874","url_meta":{"origin":8113,"position":1},"title":"Shepard Smith Brutally Roasts Fox News in First Amendment Award Acceptance Speech","author":"Mark NC","date":"3\/15\/2019","format":false,"excerpt":"There has been one voice on Fox News who has dared to challenge the doctrinal mission of America's most nauseatingly right-wing network. Shepard Smith is an anomaly whose continued presence is something of a mystery. As part of the so-called \"news\" side of Fox News (which doesn't really exist), Smith\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"Fox News, Shepard Smith, Donald Trump","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/foxnews-shep-trump-baby.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/foxnews-shep-trump-baby.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/foxnews-shep-trump-baby.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":35179,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=35179","url_meta":{"origin":8113,"position":2},"title":"Fox News Anchor Shepard Smith Wants to Know ‘Why is it Lie After Lie After Lie?’","author":"Mark NC","date":"7\/15\/2017","format":false,"excerpt":"The saga of Donald Trump, Jr. continues to unfold with more damning evidence surfacing everyday. The meeting that he attended last June was originally said to be about Russian adoption. Then they expanded it to say it might have covered opposition research on Hillary Clinton. Then emails were released showing\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"Shepard Smith Fox News","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/shepard-smith-foxnews.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/shepard-smith-foxnews.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/shepard-smith-foxnews.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":34195,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=34195","url_meta":{"origin":8113,"position":3},"title":"Trump Blames Fox News For Wacky Wiretap Conspiracy Theory – And Fox Bites Back","author":"Mark NC","date":"3\/17\/2017","format":false,"excerpt":"In the brief time that Donald Trump has occupied the White House he has set records for uttering blatant falsehoods. However, none have gone as far over the line as his accusation that President Obama wiretapped his phones. No evidence of this alleged felony was provided by Trump or any\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"Fox News Donald Trump","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/trump-baby-foxnews.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/trump-baby-foxnews.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/trump-baby-foxnews.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1252,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=1252","url_meta":{"origin":8113,"position":4},"title":"Shepard Smith Doesn’t Give A Rat’s Ass","author":"Mark NC","date":"4\/23\/2009","format":false,"excerpt":"I just can't let this go by... Shepard Smith is the Fox anchor most hated by entrenched Fox viewers. This video is a good example of why. Smith takes a principled stand against torture and in favor of living up to our national values when he says: \"We are America.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":21134,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=21134","url_meta":{"origin":8113,"position":5},"title":"Shepard Smith Blisters His Fox News Colleagues With Calm And Sense On Ebola","author":"Mark NC","date":"10\/15\/2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Credit where credit is due. Fox News anchor Shepard Smith opened his program today with a well thought out commentary that put the facts about Ebola into perspective. It was a rare moment of realism and reason from Fox News and it was delivered with passion and a sincere intention\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"Shepard Smith Ebola","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/shepard-smith-ebola.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/shepard-smith-ebola.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/shepard-smith-ebola.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8113","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8113"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8113\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8115,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8113\/revisions\/8115"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}